Retailers will continue to dominate the corporate arena this week when firms including Boots, House of Fraser and Comet produce figures.

Investors will hope that electricals group Kesa explains what it is doing to stabilise sales in the UK when it updates the market on Wednesday.

The firm said in July that sales at its flagship Comet chain were deteriorating as shoppers cut back on big ticket items, leaving like-for-like sales 5% lower since February.

Stockbroking firm Charles Stanley said: "Given news from recent results at Dixons and in particular the assertion that the white goods market was showing double digit sales decline, we would not be surprised if the current sales performance was below this level."

The broker predicted pre-tax profits of £36.2 million for the six months to July 30, down from £44.7 million last year.

In contrast to its UK performance, Kesa is expected to show better momentum within its French Darty and BUT chains.

Build Center owner Wolseley is expected to show the impact of the cooling housing market tomorrow after rivals Travis Perkins and Grafton Group talked of competitive pressures and overcapacity.

There will be no major surprises in Wolseley's annual figures as it said in July that operating profits would be more than 15% ahead and sales no more than 10% ahead in the 11 months to June 30.

Instead, the focus will be on the cooling of the housing market, which stockbroker Barclays said would "no doubt" affect its UK operation. In contrast, the US market remains robust with interest rates at historical lows and sales at record levels.

Analyst Andrew Fisher said: "We shall look for more detail on the group's cost-cutting programme and on recent acquisitions. Overall, we expect the outlook statement and current trading to be the main share price drivers."

The broker is forecasting pre-tax profits to come in at £682 million against £598 million last time.

Retailer Boots is set to follow the lead of many of its high street rivals on Thursday by announcing a further deterioration in sales.

The group said in July that like-for-like sales at its Boots the Chemist outlets were 0.8% lower for its first quarter. Chief executive Richard Baker said at the time that conditions on the high street were difficult and there was nothing to suggest this would change in the coming months.

Deutsche Bank expects the figure to have edged down to a decline of 1.5% in the first six months of Boots' financial year, while Investec Securities has pencilled in a drop of 1%.

However, the outlook for the full year is slightly more upbeat, with the market expecting sales to be anything from 1% down to 0.9% higher.

Computer games retailer Game is suffering from falling prices of software and its half-year results on Tuesday will reflect this and the fact that the only significant new hardware to be launched in the period was the handheld Nintendo DS console.

At its annual meeting in July, Game said like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland were 5.4% worse than a year ago and its group figures remained negative even after accounting for 12% growth in continental Europe.

Altium Securities analyst David O'Brien said: "We expect the forthcoming interim results to be poor in comparison to 2004, although it has to be said the vast majority of profits are made in the second half in the run-in to Christmas."

Although there was no consensus figures for half-year profits in the market, Mr O'Brien said Game was likely to post an underlying pre-tax loss of more than £4 million compared with a deficit of £3.3 million last year.

For the full year, Game is expected to report profits of £25.7 million compared with £31.9 million for 2004.

Barratt Developments has already reassured investors about its resilience to the stagnating housing market, with a trading update in July pointing to a slight increase in profits.

As a result, its final results on Wednesday will be examined for news on current visitor levels, the forward order book and how it sees the market shaping up over the remainder of this year and beyond.

Barclays analysts Andrew Fisher and Roderick Wallace said the use of incentives will be important to determining future profits because Barratt has a strategy of selling houses in large volumes and at low margins.

They are expecting Barratt to report pre-tax profits of £391 million for the year to June 30, up from £367 million a year earlier.

The consumer slowdown has failed to deflect department store group House of Fraser from making big acquisitions, with deals for the Jenners and Beatties chains announced this year already.

Analysts at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein have welcomed both deals which are expected to nudge turnover into positive territory by 1.3% even though like-for-like sales are set to be 3.6% lower in the first half.

Pre-tax losses of £4.6 million are expected on Wednesday for the six months to July 31 against a deficit of £2.9 million last time.

Dresdner said current trading was likely to look weak because of the impact of the London bombings, unhelpful weather and the G8 protests in Edinburgh.